Great movie for the "I don't like summer block busters" crowd.

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2013)

If you are looking for that summer block buster movie that is more than just a summer block bust, look no further than Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim has very few recognizable actors, to my memory at least. Without all the cheesy A-List actors who would inevitably remind you of another role they played, ripping your mind away from what is going on in front of you, the action is immersing. The movie is deeper than just action though but not really in a make you think kind of way. It presents you with more story and more emotional defeat and victory in the intro than most movies of the "epic fight"/"big machine fight" genre give you in an entire film. It doesn't stop there. We are given a very interesting dynamic between several characters that doesn't need a lot of back story to sell their motivations. A lot is said with the words that they speak.
The movie isn't your run of the mill giant robots fighting HUGE MONSTERS. This movie really felt like a live action anime. Things you would have never thought were possible in live action are done throughout. The cg is impeccable. The scale of things is incredible. The monsters are ingenious. I found myself LOVING the monster design, and this was key. I feel like this movie accomplishes what other movies failed to do. Del Toro and his crew created Kaiju (monsters) that I wanted to see more of. They were awesome and terrible things that I couldn't get enough of. This goes for the Jaegers as well. They were all different in design and functionality, but not so much that it was distracting or confusing. Without giving too much away, there are not a lot of Jaegers around when you get to the meat of the story.
Give this movie a chance and you will find yourself cheering on the pilots, saying "WHAT THE FUUUU..." about the Kaiju, helping the Jaegers fight, and celebrating victories. On it's face, this movie is about giant robots fighting giant monsters, but beneath that is a beautiful story about ENORMOUS robots fighting ENORMOUS monsters. I give it a solid 8.5/10